Dad still has all the guns in this old photo. In fact he made the rifle. When I was 13 years old I took my Christmas sock off the mantle and found a box of .22 longs in it. Mom was not happy. Later I unwrapped a Ithaca single shot .22 rifle. I've modified it a few times over the years but still have it. 4xscope and can hit a bottle cap at 75 yards.

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Daniel
SWHF 616

I certainly had guns in the house and suspect that most here did.

I would bet there are a lot of folks here that grew up with guns in the house. Given the amount of members here in their 50’s and older, growing up with guns was much more common for us than later generations. A true pity.
In my parents home there was a built in, glass fronted gun cabinet in the family room. It was never locked and we had open access to the guns. If I recall correctly, there were about a dozen long guns in the case along with 1 handgun, a 9 shot High Standard 22 revolver. Dad was not a fan of handguns. He had nothing against them, just had no use for one.
There was also an old Winchester 1892 in 25-20 that hung in a 37” wide mule deer rack over the fireplace. My older brother shot the deer and the 92 had belonged to my Grandpa Rudy.

Like most we had guns in the house. I still have my Grandfathers H&R 622 and his 22/410 that I bird hunted with. Also have my Fathers JC Higgens 22 that he taught me how to handle guns.
Russ

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US Veteran 1970-1974

Not long after I was born my Father built a house that I grew up in through the 5th grade.
One strong memory is a hall closet that the upper portion had a built in gun rack. Shotguns & rifles that Dad used as a avid hunter for Deer, Turkey ,Quail ( when Arkansas was blessed to have an abundance), rabbits and squirrels.
His favorite shotgun was a Remington model 31 with a polychoke.
Good times, great memories!

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LEX ET ORDO

Dad grew up with at least on gun in the house. I have it!

I grew up with a dozen or so guns in the house until my brother and I started buying our own!

My kids grew up with up to 225 guns in the house! All 4 of them never shot a single person and never robbed a bank! They all have a few guns. The oldest has the most with 11. The boys had rifle racks in their room with the guns lock up, (only to keep the neighbors happy!)

We lived with the idea of instead of "Kid Proofing the guns, We "Gun Proofed" the kids! I own a safe but the lesser valued guns were never locked up (unless out of town for a week or more).

Ivan.

My wife grew up as the daughter of a cop, and he was a nation Police Practical Comp. Champion (twice). So she believes: real men own guns, shoot guns, buy and sell guns, and talk guns! I married a real keeper!

Lots of them, all in closets with 5 kids that respected them. An example is my Dads Marlin 38-40 generational hand me down. I filled my buck tag with it this year. It will go to my son. I'm not entirely confident that one of my grandsons will eventually get it, "common sense gun laws" may classify it an assault weapon because it holds more than one round, and it will be confiscated and destroyed.

Attached Images

Marlin.jpg (177.1 KB, 74 views)

Not only did I have guns in the house as a child, I also took them to school during hunting season so it would be quicker going afield after the bell.

That was my situation.

Sure we had guns around. Mom never liked them, nor did she like eating wild game or fish. She was more or less a typical Indiana farm girl in that figured food should come from the farm+grocery store. She didn’t care much for all the things a young fellow might be interested in - motorcycles, scuba diving, flying, you name it!

Dad had to assume 100% responsibility for everything to do with guns. The one exception was that she took an interest in hearing protection. She helped me buy my own ear muffs and took me somewhere to get them. Needless to say, I got into using hearing protection at a young age.

My dad had a .410 shotgun, a .22 Remington and a Lefever double barrel he bought from my great uncle. At some point, he was given a H&A breaktop that has a broken firing pin. I have them all in my safe now. Dad was a WWII vet. He was in the Battle of the Bulge and a lot of other action with the 3rd Armored Division. I don't think he was too happy with me getting heavy into handguns. When he saw my Garand, he questioned why I needed it.

And that was still common not long ago. My son is 30. During his time in HS he and most of the kids that drove to school had rifles in their car during deer season. 12 short years later it will land them in jail. I don't care how many people here despise me and criticize me for being critical, I'll keep saying that we...the collective we...really blew it. Things have changed so much, so fast, and we allowed it.

Dad was a police officer.... Sargent to Captain... from my birth to when I went off to College.........

Learned to handle a Stevens Favorite at about 9 years old when the Folks bought property in the Laurel Highlands of Pa.

Got my first new gun a Remington 111 Scoremaster on my 11th Christmas

I was on the High School and College Rifle teams: while Dad was on the Department's pistol team.

My Jr and Sr year in College I had a Smith 41 in my dorm room that I'd shoot after Rifle practice........................

So to answer your question..... ya there were guns in the house growing up

There was just one gun- the Broomhandle on the right that my father brought back from WW II. It stimulated my interest in firearms and led to me pestering him for a .22 rifle which he provided the Christmas I was 11.
Regards,
turnerriver

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turnerriver

I still have it.

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Isaiah 41:10

I agree with Ivan above, I've never thought it was about "childproofing the guns"; it's about teaching kids to know how to use and respect guns. That's what my dad did with me and my 2 younger brothers. Dad always loved long guns, shotguns and 22 rifles mostly. Winchester "red letter" single shots were his favorites. Remington pump and semi auto, H&R, J. C. Higgins, you name it. Dad loved trading around with his friends. We never got into dad's gun cabinets unless told we could and what to get out.
Dad's biggest fear was someone breaking into the house and his guns being stolen. My biggest fear is that the government will take our guns away from us! It's always the law abiding citizens who pay the cost of gun control :-(

Yes, dad had his 12 Ga. pump Stevens, a 1903 Winchester 22 Automatic that had been his fathers, a .410 he bought for me, and a couple of handguns, a 1910 Mauser in the dresser drawer, and a CZ27 in a desk drawer.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Not me. I also have no idea where my interest in firearms came from. For one I grew up without a father and with one exception the males in my family neither hunted nor engaged in any target sports. To my knowledge the only firearm owner was one of my mother's cousins and we didn't even live in the same state.

Don't know how I became so interested in guns. When other kids were buying comic books I was buying gun magazines. I spent hours pouring over Gun Digest. At 12 I had memorized all the S&W model numbers.

My poor mother tried her best to satisfy my interest. She kept me enrolled in the local NRA Youth program so once a week I'd go to the indoor range and shoot a single-shot .22 with a group of boys. It was the best she could do. It was enough.

Pop had hunted deer a time or two when I was small and his rifle was kept in his closet. Later on I learned to hunt and fish with some friends of mine and he gave me that gun which I reworked and still have. My kids grew up with guns in the house,never a problem. Their mom didn’t particularly like it,but her aunt convinced her that neither guns nor hunting were evil. I seem to be the only hunter in the clan though and haven’t gone out in several years now.

I'm definitely in the minority here, the only gun around when I was growing up was a single shot 22 rifle. My Dad was not a hunter at all, he did fish a lot tho. My Mother made a rabbit trap so we did have rabbit to eat.
I was probably 18 or 19 before I ever fired a gun. First boyfriend/ex-husband was a hunter and a shooter, that was my intro to firearms. The one thing I can thank him for!

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Super Snooper

I certainly did, from age 11 on. The gun was mine - a Winchester Model 69A. I also brought M1 rifles home from high school ROTC that I shot in weekend matches from time to time. No big deal in the 1950s.

John

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- Cogito, ergo armatus sum -

me to - + this was in New Jersey in the 60's - also carried them on public service buses to attend matches -

...even though my Dad was a farm boy and a WWII vet...we never had a gun in the house that I know of...

...my Dad did teach me to shoot...and proper gun safety when we would go visit some friends who owned a farm...a pump 22 was used...

...my Dad may have had a revolver issued to him when he worked on the Railway Post Office cars in the 1960s...if he did I didn't know...I don't even know if my Mother knew...

...my farm girl wife grew up with guns...her Dad had a Remington 700 in 30-06...a 12 gauge Ithaca 37...a pump 22...and a 1935 Beretta pistol he brought back from his military service in Europe...

...even my wife's crazed little brother knew better than to touch them without permission...my wife and her siblings were taught to shoot and gun safety by their Dad...

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A Country Boy Can Survive

Glenwolde - my story is similar to yours. No guns no hunting in my house growing up, yet both my brother and I developed interests in guns along the way. I have no idea where my obsession came from.


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Dad had a 22 High Standard and a 22 Wards Bolt Action. Got my first 22 rifle (Sears single shot) at 12 or 13, handed down to my brother and then to my Mom. She had a Ruger Bearcat and I got a Single Six for graduation. Middle brother got a 41 Blackhawk and we both bought mil-surp bolt actions (Mauser and 1917 Enfield. We all went downhill from their. Long Beach Police Junior Rifle Club, etc.

Born and raised in West TEXAS - next question ?

Both of my parents were the first member of either family to leave the farm and move to the "big city". The suburbs actually.
Both sets of grand parents and most of my aunts and uncles were all farmers. Everybody had at least one gun in the house. Including us.
I grew up with guns all around me. But it was just a tool. Like any other tool that might be used around the house or farm. As kids we were taught to respect all tools, including the guns.
My Dad was an avid quail hunter. His old Remington 11-48, which I still have, has worn spots in the stock and fore end where it spent many years riding in the rifle rack of his truck. You can't do that anymore.
I got my first BB gun at 8. A single shot .410 at about 9 or 10 and my first .22 rifle for Christmas at 12.
I've had guns all around me my whole life.

I grew up on a ranch and there were rifles, shotguns and revolvers sitting in the utility room closet. They were tools just like other tools and were by no means anywhere close to the most dangerous thing on the ranch.

I started hunting with one about age 6 with supervision and by age 10 I was independently hunting both rabbits and varmints on the ranch. By age 12, I was mowing on a tractor and carrying a rifle or a .22 LR pistol was the norm.

I was also not unique in anyway. We commonly brought BB guns and .22 rifles to school for show and tell in 2nd and 3rd grade. By 3rd grade pretty much all the boys also had a 3 1/2" or 4" buck knife on their belt - it was pretty much the unofficial school uniform.

Inb 6th grade pretty much all the boys and a number of the girls took the NRA Hunter Safety course as a prerequisite to getting a hunting license. It was held after school in one of of the classrooms with a full range of rifles, shotguns, and handguns so that the students could be familiar with the various action types and how to clear them.

No one ever got shot, and while we had our share of disagreements settled in a fistfight on the playground no one ever pulled a knife, or even considered it.

Interestingly, our school superintendent also left the gym unlocked after school until 9pm so that students could use it for after school activities. No school staff was ever around, but the superintendent was very direct and to the point that the FIRST time the lights got left on, or the floor did not get swept, or the balls or other equipment did not get put away, or there was a fight, he'd start locking the doors when school let out and permanently end the open gym. I worked with him about 20 years later, shortly before he passed away, and he commented to me once that in all the time he was superintendent, he never had any cause to keep his promise to lock the doors.

I bring this up because whether it's kives, guns, or basketball in the gym after school, it all centered on personal responsibility, personal accountability and civility - putting the needs and best interests of the community above your own.

We've lost that. I see it even in the shooting community where way too many folks confuse having a right with it being a good idea to exercise that right irresponsibly. For example 2A demonstrations where some, maybe even well meaning, clueless individual takes an AR-15 to Starbucks because he or she has a right to bear arms (forgetting that he or she is making people uncomfortable and costing a business money), or a long range shooter shooting an elk at 1000 yards with his hipster 6.5 Creedmoor because he thinks he as a "right" to prove he's some wort of wannabe sniper (willfully ignoring the increased role luck plays in the shot, the greatly reduced energy and expansion of the bullet, and the much greater possibility of a wounded animal being lost to die a slow, inhumane death).

There were a few long guns in the closet. I only remember one handgun, though, from my youth. It was a cheap .22 revolver. It was the first "real" gun I shot as a kid after learning the basics on a Daisy and a Crossman.

I loved that Crossman Powermaster. I could hit anything with it. I was about six years old, and the Indian Guides held a "turkey shoot" at a local bowling alley. Targets were set up where the pins would have been, and the kids shot from the foul line. I was by far the best shot of any of the kids I knew using my Crossman. I knew I would win - until they told me I couldn't use my gun. I had to use one of their identical Daisy Red Ryders. Well, a friend had a Red Ryder and I couldn't hit squat with it. It had so little power compared to my Crossman that I could watch the arc of the bb as it followed the inevitable pull of gravity. I knew right then that I wouldn't win, and I didn't.

Of course they were smarter than I was. My gun was powerful enough to put holes in the parquet. The Red Ryders weren't.

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Or something like that . . .

Nope. Never.
No guns. No guns in the house. I've never even seen my dad fire one of only two family owned guns. Which I've never even seen to date.

And I know , I will never see.

An M1 in my parents closet, but never any ammo in the house.

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Slava Ukraini!

A simple question requiring a simple answer so, no.

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Sure you did

There were no guns in our house until my Dad bought me a Winchester Model 74 which I enjoyed shooting and small game hunting for many years. Unfortunately, it was stolen when I was in college. However, I still Have the High Standard Sport King which was my first pistol which will be passed down to the grandchildren.
Jim

My Dad always had guns. He started teaching me to shoot when I was five and I got my first 22 rifle when I was eight.
Times have changed so much. When I was in H.S. one of my friends folks owned a farm about two miles from town. Three of us usually went together and we would walk through the town square all carrying long guns and sometimes one would also have a handgun on their waist. No one ever gave us a second look except to inquire about about a type of gun someone had.

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Mighty 90's,Trying 4 a 100!

It took me four years after I got out of the service to get a 22 rifle. My Marlin disappeared while I was gone.
I bought a Winchester 74(was going to pay it out 5 bucks a month) but I got a lemon, constantly jammed. I am sure most were good. The sporting goods took it back and I bought a Remington Model 121. Think that I had to pay a couple of extra months.
My daughter, grandson and great grandson all learned to shoot with my first rifle, a Remington Improved Model 6. Still shoots good and my grandson has it.

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Mighty 90's,Trying 4 a 100!

I grew up with a 12 gauge, a .410, 30.06 and a Marlin .22 all resting in a wall rack.
A Lugar 9mm in the desk drawer. Seven kids of various ages, and we all knew not to even think of touching without our dad supervising. He would sometimes ask if I wanted to "go shoot" . He was very good at "teaching guns" as he would call it.
We mostly shot the 22 as the resources for ammo was scarce.

Dad had a little shop in the house where he did all his gunsmithing. At night I had to walk through his "shop" to get to my bedroom. I did not dare touch anything if he wasn't there. On weekends we both would shot in the NRA match. He shot a High Standard and I shot an M1 .22 conversion. He always out shot me and had more than his share of trophys. M60 gunner in the Marines and spent a lot of my spare time in the armory helping them out. Always the first one to raise his hand to go to a class or learn a new weapon. Pretty much had to give up gunsmith work when my health went south on me. I'm still fighting it and hoping to get my new shop done and on line soon so I can get back at it.

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Daniel
SWHF 616

Grew up on a farm in west central Ks, in the late 50s, and 60s. Dad had a pump 22 and a pump 12 ga in the house or in a gun rack in the pick up at all times. Us boys, five of us got BB guns at about age eight and 22s at about 13.

...the good old days in Brooklyn?...

...speaking of Brooklyn and drifting a little...were you ever in Ebbets Field?...before it's demise...

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A Country Boy Can Survive

Youthful memories (ages 5-6) of sneaking up into the attic to play with the M-1 Carbine my old man brought back from WWII. The usual selection of cap pistols-wish I still had them.

First, I spent 11 year on my PD as a Sergeant, not a Sargent!

Second, my dad was a Pearl Harbor survivor D-Day vet and Battle of the Bulge survivor and as such came back with little interest in guns. He did have a Sears pump shotgun for bird hunting and a Beretta .380 (War Souvenir) that he kept for home protection. But he did buy me a Sears .22 and taught me to shoot at age 12.

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Support your Police, & NRA

Bensonhurst.
Nah, never been to any baseball game, but dad was an avid Dodger fan and used to go to the games.

We had tools' in the house, never loaded and kept in gun racks. All friends, neighbors and kin were the same; hunting tools only.... safely stored. Only knew of one pistol, PawPaws snake charmer.

Never heard of a collection, safe or anyone having an injury from shooting or playing with guns. Us kids knew to leave them alone without adult supervision. Out of all the rules that were broken, playing with guns wasn't one.

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triggers dog-pile egomaniacs

We sure did. Pop was a deer hunter and NSSA shooter. He gave me a BB gun when I was about 6 and a Stevens Favorite .22 rifle when I was about 8. He was never in the service but he liked US military arms. My brother and I have most of these now.

Dad had a 12ga JC Higgins Pump for protection and that was it. I still got it and if it could talk........

I’m the opposite of most here in that i wasnt raised in a gun household. I myself didnt get into this hobby and ownership until i hit my 50’s.
My father left us in the late 60’s never to be heard from again. Though in my ancestry research this year I did find some old slides from that period that showed a rifle up against a wall. I just dont recall that.
My first stepfather had guns in the home, but he was a violent man; those stories are for another place. Needless to say my first real intro to guns was not pleasant nor correct.
Second stepdad was a hunter and did have guns in the home, we just didnt do a lot of shooting together. And a gun led to his downfall; to be honest by the time I was a young adult I was not very pro gun anything.
So wasnt until i got married that i finally had a group of sportsmen and women to show and teach me the positive side. And my first gun that got me started in all this was the old Colt Challenger that was their dad’s and grandpa’s that was handed down to me. That old 22 can still shoot well.

I may envy many who have a lifetime of memories from targets to hunting to trap; I just make the most memories I can now as an older adult lol. For this hobby is one I truly enjoy. And from my viewpoint, proper education and positive experiences means everything when it revolves around guns.

None of ours were ever in plain sight. IIRC, the case was in the garage, which in a high altitude, western climate would not be likely to rust.

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Front sight and squeeze

Pop had a Baker 16 ga double and a High Standard .22 pistol. We were city/suburb folks but went hunting occasionally.

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Made it, Ma! Top of the world!

Spell check will get you every time.. or not.....

Edit: Google search shows both spellings..........with "Sargent" as a "military member" Latin origin...... which my Dad was, in the South Pacific and Coast Guard Reserve....................... go figure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We always had guns and they were loaded and not locked up. Pap said if he had time to get the gun loaded he didn't need a gun.
I was raised around hunters and farmers and had saw animals killed and knew the difference between real guns and toy guns. My maternal grandfather started me shooting a .22 when I was about 4. I remember I couldn't hold it up and had to rest the barrel on a log. Larry